The total amount of phytomass of the forest vegetation in the forested areas of European Russia in 1988 was estimated to be 15.47 Pg of dry matter. Wood constituted 84.9% of the total vegetation phytomass (stemwood, 59.3%; crown branches, 9.6%; and roots 19%).
Understory made up only 6.0%. About 90% of the total phytomass was aboveground, and another 10% was belowground. The average density of the forest vegetation phytomass was 9.32 kg/m2, but the regional variability was rather high, from 8.46 in the northern region to 13.99 kg/m2 in north Caucasus. The average phytomass density in coniferous forests was somewhat less (8.21 kg/m2) than the total average; this is because, on one hand, there are large areas of low productive stands in the north of European Russia, but, on the other hand, a high extent of harvests of mature and overmature coniferous forests in the region. Total carbon fixation was estimated to be 7.64 Pg, with an average density of 4.60 kg C/m2; the density ranges between 4.16 to 6.96 kg C/m2.
Many studies report a high proportion of decaying stems in mature and overmature stands in European Russia especially in the north and in mountainous regions (e.g., Chertovsky et al., 1974; and Chibisov, 1974). For our calculations we needed to estimate the amount of decaying wood at the destructive stages. This information is not available from the forest inventory. In 1988 the growing stock in mature and overmature stands was 6.68 billion m3 in coniferous forests, 0.27 million m3 in hard deciduous forests, and 2.18 billion m3 in soft deciduous forests.
Based on studies of the wood quality in mature and overmature forests (Moshkaljov, 1984;
Voinov, 1986; Shvidenko et al., 1987; and Dzebisashvili, 1992) and expert assumptions, we estimated that 0.25 billion m3 of wood were destroyed by decay. This amount constitutes about 1.2% of the total growing stock and is within the limits of the systematic errors of the Russian forest inventory data. Thus, we have not calibrated the data presented in Table 6 for decaying wood.
The average ratio between the total phytomass and the growing stock is estimated to be 0.763 [Mg of dry matter per 1 m3 of fresh (green) stemwood]. The corresponding ratio for carbon is
Table 6. Phytomass and carbon content of the forest vegetation in forested areas of European
Coniferous 0.9 1.0 5.7 1.9 0.5 10.0 10.42 4.9 5.14
Hard deciduous 0.2 1.2 5.2 1.2 0.2 7.9 15.03 3.9 7.48
Soft deciduous 0.3 0.8 7.4 2.6 0.6 11.7 9.90 5.8 4.91
Total 1.3 3.0 18.4 5.6 1.2 29.6 11.10 14.7 5.50
Northern
Coniferous 490.9 631.5 3002.0 1022.9 381.2 5528.5 9.09 2720.6 4.47
Hard deciduous 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Soft deciduous 34.7 59.2 503.5 186.9 123.4 907.8 5.97 446.0 2.93
Total 525.6 690.7 3505.5 1209.9 504.6 6436.3 8.46 3166.6 4.16
Northwestern
Coniferous 36.7 53.2 365.3 110.4 27.1 592.6 11.11 293.1 5.50
Hard deciduous 0.0 0.2 1.0 0.2 0.0 1.4 14.85 0.7 7.39
Soft deciduous 11.7 35.0 352.1 108.0 24.0 530.8 10.52 263.6 5.23
Total 48.4 88.4 718.4 218.6 51.1 1124.9 10.83 557.5 5.37
Central
Coniferous 63.9 87.5 598.4 178.5 42.9 971.1 10.82 480.2 5.35
Hard deciduous 1.3 9.3 40.9 9.7 1.2 62.4 11.86 31.1 5.90
Soft deciduous 25.9 66.3 686.7 233.6 52.6 1065.1 9.84 528.6 4.88
Total 91.0 163.1 1326.0 421.7 96.8 2098.6 10.32 1039.9 5.12
Volgo Vyatsky
Coniferous 43.4 60.5 408.6 122.9 32.6 668.0 9.68 330.2 4.78
Hard deciduous 0.9 6.8 28.2 6.4 0.9 43.2 11.12 21.5 5.54
Soft deciduous 14.8 34.4 346.9 116.5 27.9 540.5 8.98 268.1 4.45
Total 59.1 101.6 783.7 245.8 61.5 1251.7 9.40 619.8 4.66
Central Chernozymny
Coniferous 2.1 3.4 25.7 6.6 2.9 40.7 9.80 20.1 4.84
Hard deciduous 1.8 13.2 50.4 9.9 2.0 77.3 10.59 38.4 5.27
Soft deciduous 0.6 1.2 14.8 5.4 0.8 22.8 7.04 11.3 3.50
Total 4.5 17.8 90.9 21.9 5.7 140.8 9.58 69.8 4.76
Povolshsky
Coniferous 5.4 8.8 71.0 18.3 7.3 110.8 9.56 54.8 4.73
Hard deciduous 2.9 24.3 83.3 14.5 4.2 129.2 8.56 64.2 4.26
Soft deciduous 5.3 4.5 118.9 38.3 6.2 173.2 8.23 86.0 4.09
Total 13.6 37.5 273.2 71.2 17.7 413.1 8.65 205.0 4.30
North Caucasus
Coniferous 4.0 5.6 36.7 11.3 2.6 60.2 14.53 29.8 7.19
Hard deciduous 7.2 86.4 252.1 54.3 9.9 410.0 15.07 204.1 7.51
Soft deciduous 1.3 1.8 27.3 10.0 1.9 42.2 7.97 21.0 3.96
Total 12.5 93.8 316.1 75.6 14.4 512.4 13.99 254.9 6.96
Ural
Coniferous 143.7 193.8 1186.0 374.4 93.1 1991.0 10.37 983.7 5.12
Hard deciduous 2.0 18.8 65.2 11.9 2.9 100.8 10.47 50.2 5.21
Soft deciduous 39.7 81.0 884.9 284.2 76.3 1366.1 8.77 677.2 4.35
Total 185.4 293.7 2136.1 670.5 172.2 3457.9 9.67 1711.1 4.79
Total and average 941.3 1489.5 9168.4 2940.9 925.2 15465.3 9.32 7639.3 4.60
0.377 Mg C/m3. The latter indicator provides the information needed to estimate the development of the phytomass content if the dynamics of the growing stock is known. The dynamics of the growing stock can be obtained from the FSA for the 1966–1993 period (Goscomles SSSR, 1968, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990; FSFMRF, 1995). Earlier it was shown that the FSA data are, to some extent, biased and that this bias is due to inventory methods used (Shvidenko et al., 1996). Results from the estimations of the dynamics of both the officially reported growing stock and the dynamics adjusted by the technique discussed by Shivdenko et al. (1995) are presented in Table 7.
Table 7. Dynamics of the phytomass and carbon content of the European Russian forests during 1966–1993.
Years
Indicator 1966 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993
Data of official statistics
Forest fund, million ha 202.3 206.3 199.8 199.8 207.4 209.3 Forested area, million ha 161.3 158.6 163.5 164.4 166.0 166.5 Forested area of state forest
mngmt, million ha
130.7 133.3 134.6 135.9 136.7 136.9
Forested areas
Growing stock, billion m3 17.00 17.40 18.70 19.30 20.30 21.10
Total phytomass, Pg 12.97 13.28 14.27 14.73 15.47 16.10
Carbon content, Pg 6.41 6.56 7.05 7.28 7.64 7.95 Reconstructed dynamics for forested areas
Growing stock, billion m3 16.00 17.00 18.30 19.90 21.40 22.20
Total phytomass, Pg 12.21 12.97 13.96 15.18 16.33 16.94
Carbon content, Pg 6.03 6.41 6.90 7.50 8.07 8.37
From Table 7 it can be concluded that between 1966 and 1993 phytomass increased by 3.13 Pg (an annual average increase of 116 Tg) and carbon increased by 1.54 Pg (an average of 57 Tg C/year). Our reconstruction gives values that are about 30% higher: the phytomass increase is estimated to be 4.73 Pg (174 Tg C/year) and carbon content increase is estimated to be 2.34 Pg (or 87 Tg C/year).
A comparison of the estimated amount of phytomass reported in this study with estimates presented by Alexeev and Birdsey (1994) shows that this study’s estimates are 0.45 Pg C (5.9%) higher than the latter study’s estimates. A comparison between the values calculated for the reconstructed dynamics of this study and those from the Alexeev and Birdsey (1994) study shows even larger differences: 10.9% for 1988 and 14.1% for 1993. The ratio Rv(tot)
calculated from the Alexeev and Birdsey (1994) study is 0.354 Mg C/m3 (which is 6.1% lower than the results reported in this paper). Isaev et al. (1995) estimated that is 0.43 for all Russian forests. Kolchugina and Vinson (1993) used the value of 0.53 Mg C/m3 determined by Sampson (1992) for marketable wood in US forests (which is quite different from the stemwood presented in the FSA). This latter value results in a significant overestimate of the total phytomass for total Russian forests [the average C density reported by Kolchugina and Vinson (1993) for all of Russia was 6.27 kg C/m2 versus 3.63 kg C/m2 given by Alexeev and Birdsey (1994)]. Isaev et al. estimate the C density of the Russian forests to be 5.16 (1993)
and 4.55 (1995) kg C/m2. The average C density estimated in this study for European Russia is 4.60 kg C/m2.
Taking into account the structure of the calculations and the specifics of the initial data, there are no formal methods which could be applied for the estimation of the statistical errors of the overall results. Sensitive analysis based on “what … if” auxiliary calculations gives a probable standard error of about ±7–8%.
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Appendix
The experimental data (European Russia)